We left our intrepid band preparing to leave Gul Shaledep without a real destination in mind. While the menfolk argued destinations in the street, Alianna and Kitiana wandered off alone, and were soon accosted by a repulsive crone who looked to have a fair amount of orcish blood. “Yorglok awaits you in the hills!” she intoned, after carefully scrutinizing them both and sniffing them a bit.

Returning to the group, they shared the experience, and a few questions in the local’s ears revealed that Yorglok was the name of a hill giant matriarch nearly 80 years past who had terrorized the region until her sons were all slain in battle and her tribe had turned against her. Thought by most to be dead, they were told she was a story now told to frighten children.

Undismayed by this information, the group rode out of town heading north into the Rakers, hoping to locate some trace of the whoever (or whatever) was waiting for them. The group promptly became lost, and wandered aimlessly for several hours until accosted by a sizable force of orcs. Initially the orcs merely wanted their horses, but when asked about Yorglok, they grudgingly agreed to lead the group, under heavy guard, to her location.

Hours later they were led into a large camp populated chiefly by orcs, and a few very young hill giants. Led into the largest of the buildings there, they met Yorglok, who was both incredibly ancient and massively fat (even for a hill giant). Though her eyesight was clearly poor, she stared at Alianna and Kitiana both, murmuring about them carrying the scent of ‘dragonscale and old magic’.

Both women made obvious displays of respect, and asked her why they’d been told she was waiting for them. In her youth, the matriarch revealed, she’d had a vision that she felt involved these two women, born of different races and widely flung lands of origin. The prophesy, which we are assured rhymed much better in it’s original Giantish, follows:

“In ages lost, once all were one, Our kingdom strongest beneath the sun.
Then men rose up with war machines to make our lifeblood run in streams.
Strangers came bearing silver flame, from the future, past, before magic’s wane.
Arrows eight with hidden faces, broke our Gate to other places.
Where once the lines were clearly drawn, now disorder ruled the Dawn.
Dragons, men, and Giants sundered, In Darkness sealed, so is it wondered?
We feel the loss of our better souls; turn for turn beneath the Poles….”

Though there was clearly more to the prophesy, Yorglok did not choose to share it at this time. Thanking her for her time, the group made a hasty retreat, protected, for the moment, by the matriarch’s proclamation that they were to be allowed to leave in peace.

Tal4en, for his part, felt that the beginning of the prophesy told of an ancient human empire that once united all, but this theory fell apart, coming as it did from a giant. Nobody missed the eight arrows with hidden faces; clearly, the Mabelrodians were involved somehow, and the Gate mentioned might involve the Celestial Arch that Kitiana had seen in her own vision.

However, the group still felt that they were not yet ready to face the Church of Celestian directly. Traveling south to Rel Mord, they did meet with the Celestines to further investigate the capsule which Progillius Oransiir had arrived in, which had been relocated to there after their initial studies in Trigol. They learned that on his last ‘visit’ to the site, he had broken into the temple at night with the assistance of a group of fire hobgoblins, who, previous to that night, had served loyally on the City Watch since the end of the wars. The party quickly put two and two together and realized that they’d already encountered a group of fire hobgoblins with some fairly outlandish devices not so many weeks past…

Checking over the capsule, Tal4en soon came to the opinion that it was perhaps the most advanced clockwork mechanism he’d ever seen, a masterwork item of truly impressive capabilities. Though this didn’t give the group any insight as to who had built it, it did remind them that they’d found a map in the tower the hobgoblins had held that charted a course to the north, not from the north as they had originally surmised….

Deciding that the easiest path north led through Perrenland, the party traveled west through Urnst, crossed the Nyr Dyv, rode through Furyondy, Veluna and Ket, finally arriving at the feet of the Clatspurs nearly destitute. Having been warned that the pass through the Clatspurs as treacherous with bandit activity (fueled by a wizened cleric named Maerdan (the Black) and his lieutenant, Flavius, whose base of operations was the thrice damned resurgent Temple of Wounds located in the mountains), the group decided to accompany a caravan through the pass, seeking protection in numbers while earning a few gold as guards on the journey.

When we ended for the night, the party was fending off a large force of hobgoblins, and, having sustained several serious wounds and counting themselves outnumbered, began discussing secondary character concepts… but the fight was far from over.

(Needless to say, with only half the group present, we didn’t accomplish a great deal…)

We rejoin our intrepid band in Greyhawk City, where they had determined to spend a few days getting well and truly shut of the swamp. On their second night in town, Alexander (and Kitiana) were attacked in their bed by an invisible stalker, presumably sent by Venne the loan shark, who obviously no longer wanted to merely talk about recovering his loan. Though wounded by the elemental, Alexander and his companions soon slew the creature, and, having slightly burned their present apartments, moved down the hall to another room.

The next day Losien used his contacts at the thieves guild to investigate Venne, only to learn that he was highly placed and well protected, and unlikely to respond well to any sort of frontal assault.

Finally, the group decided that it was time to set off on the road again, and decided upon the Flinty Hills, so that Kitiana could question Nethin (session #8) about the archway in her dreams. They set off on horse and mule through the Cairn Hills, skirting the shore of the Nyr Dyv, bound for Urnst and proper roads.

Almost a month of travel brought the group to the city of Womtham in Nyrond, where they stopped for a few days because a carnival was in
town. Tal4en and Alexander soon found themselves running a con in which Alexander told fortunes, which he purported to ‘translate’ from Tal4en (who was actually insulting or merely rambling aimlessly most of the time anyway). Alianna and Kitiana attended the daily joust, and
condescended to give their tokens to Sir Elgar the Swift of Knurl and Sir Guillaume the Archer of Innspa, respectively. Though Sir Guillaume
led through most of the passes, he eventually fell to Sir Elgar in the end. Both ladies sent their regrets to the knights concerning the celebration afterwards.

In Womtham itself the group met Burke Hammertoe, one of the city’s most popular smiths, who not only knew Nethin (second cousin on my mother’s side, once removed), but gave them directions to the Gul Shaledep, the dwarven town where they both were from. Losien and Burke traded genteel insults throughout the exchange, as Burke boxed up some packages for the group to deliver by way of introduction.

Traveling to Gul Shaledep involved several more days of travel, and several off camera fights with bands of orcs and goblins met along the way. The trail to Gul Shaledep was well marked by stone monoliths, and the town itself consisted of a fabulous gateway carven into the first of the true mountains of the Rakers, with a small ‘tall town’ ghetto lining a 400 yard grotto that dropped away from the canyon floor (like cliff dwellings, wrought medieval style).

After finding a place at one of the inns, the party contacted a messenger to call on Nethin, who arrived in the early evening. Thanking them for the deliveries, he provided the group with a rough map of the site where the arch was located, though he warned that the Church of Celestian considered the site off limits to all but their most trusted personnel. He also intimated that they had managed to open the gateway only once, but that doing so had resulted in the deaths of all those present when they were sucked through the gate to the far side. As we parted for the evening, the group was preparing to set out once more, their next destination perhaps a bit uncertain…

We left our heroes on the roof of the Marsh Tower, finishing off the last of their foes and preparing for a descent. Wishing to know what they were up against, Kitiana used her spellfire abilities to drain the illusion blocking their view of what lay below, which bears some description.

At the base of the tower’s interior lay a wooden vessel not unlike a spelljammer. As the party stared down into the hole, the first gout of black smoke poured from what Tal43n identified as a probable steam engine, and two wooden screws projected from the flanks of the vessel, presumably it’s engine.

Staring back up at the party were several dozen hobgoblins, who unleashed a hail of arrows in response to the party’s revealing their intent. As the ship tore through Alianna’s web, the party responded with a variety of fire based magics, hoping to cripple the ship before it could outdistance them in the air. Alexander caught a grappling hook on the rail, and Akono jumped for the rope; the hobgoblins responded by simply cutting the rope, leaving Akono to drop into the shaft.

When their first salvos failed to down the ship, the party mounted their summoned hippogriffs anew and took off in pursuit, as they could see from the poorly executed flight of their quarry that it was aflame and sorely wounded; fortunately for the aerial team they failed to gain any distance on the ship, which eventually exploded, throwing dead hobgoblins and debris across a wide swath of the swamp.

Returning to the tower, the party spent most of the day searching it for treasure, and, after freeing the lizard folk prisoners and returning them to their kin, finally a small team went out to find the wreckage of the flying ship. Not much was left, but Losien and Tal4en did locate most of the corpse of a doppelganger they assumed to have been the ‘boss’ their captive had spoken of. A map located on his body charted a course between their location and a point on the coast of the Icy Sea, far to the north.

After securing the tower, the party journeyed north to retrieve their load of ‘floatwood’ from the druids they’d left it in the care of, only to discover their grove had been chopped down, their bodies in shallow graves, and the ‘floatwood’ gone. A single hobgoblin grave was located, and questioning the corpse via magic revealed that the bulk of the hobgoblins from the tower had left under cover of darkness, slaughtered the druids, and taken the wood – he’d been the only casualty on their side.

Returning to Greyhawk, the party reported back to the agency that had sent them out to investigate the tower in the first place. The proctor who they dealt with even bought the plans for the ship they’d recovered amongst their other treasure…

While getting ready for their next outing, Alexander learned that Janus Tandover and his fleet had run afoul of bad weather and lake monsters, and been decimated in crossing the Nyr Dyv. Tandover, however, was known to be among the survivors, and had last been seen in the Duchy of Urnst.

As we rejoin our intrepid adventurers, they were securing their hobgoblin captive and moving further into the swamp, to better avoid another patrol. When they felt safe enough, they brought their captive around, and began to question him under a Zone of Truth.

The hobgoblin was surprisingly forthcoming, though Alex detected that he was trying to stall for as much time as he could in answering. The group learned that 200 or so hobgoblins occupied that tower, and that the ‘boss’, who was some kind of a shapeshifter, claimed it as having belonged to his grand sire. They had come to ‘bring civilization to this wretched swamp’.

When asked how the group might safely enter the tower, their captive suggested stowing away in one of the deliveries that a subjugated lizard folk tribe was soon to make. Scouting the lizard folk village, the group discovered that the village sat near a strange grove of large trees that resembled oak, and that the lizard folk were engaged in tending and milling these trees into planks.

On further questioning, their captive revealed that the lizard folk were kept docile by holding their shaman captive in the largest of the huts, and that perhaps another half dozen hobgoblins kept the populace in check. Elzedar and Losien elected to scout an approach to the shaman, hoping that if he were freed, the lizard folk would rise up against the hobgoblins. The rest of the group planned to take out the visible hobgoblins when their two forward observers were spotted freeing the shaman.

In the course of their approach to the shaman’s hut, Losien spotted two individuals approaching the village who seemed distinctly out of place; a gnome in full plate leading a bound human female in robes towards the camp. Losien tried to hide but failed, giving the gnome plenty of warning that an attack was coming…

Losien fired a poisoned arrow at the gnome, who seemed to shrug off the worst of it’s effects easily. As the gnome closed to melee range, Losien noticed also that the gnome’s helm was familiar in that it couldn’t be opened – obviously the gnome followed Mabelrode. An eye engraved on the brow of thew helm flashed once at Losien, but to little effect.

Elzedar joined the fray, but the gnome continued to concentrate his attacks against Losien, who he quickly drove into near unconsciousness; when Losien finally succumbed to his wounds and dropped to quaff a potion, only then did the gnome turn to Elzedar. Elzedar did note that when Losien finally stood up again, a voice inside the helmet seemed to call a warning out in a language that he didn’t understand.

The gnome quickly turned back to Losien, who unleashed a lightning bolt from a scroll, which seemed to stagger the gnome a little, and served notice to everyone everywhere that things weren’t going exactly as planned. As Alex, Tal4en, and Okono ran to free the shaman, Kitiana and Alianna moved to aid the rogues…

After several more rounds of bashing away at the gnome, he finally fell to Kitiana’s spellfire, which seemed to overload whatever magical defenses his armor was granting him. The others, having slaughtered the hobgoblins who held the shaman prisoner, joined in the brief melee with the lizard folk against the other hobgoblins.

After detecting that most of the gnome’s equipment was both magical (and as Tal4en detected, aware on one level or another), the group tied up the gnome with their hobgoblin and went to the village to talk to the lizard folk. Though Losien had promised the hobgoblin he’d be released, he promptly gave his location to the lizard folk; the lizard folk, however, could find no trace of him or the gnome – only broken ropes.

The gnome’s captive, Omi, revealed that she had been sent by a druidic circle on the outskirts of the swamp to investigate the disappearance of two members of their order, as well as the recent exodus of several lizard folk tribes from the central swamp.

The shaman thanked the group for freeing him, and told the tale of how his people had been enslaved by the hobgoblins, whose chief had directed them to plant the seeds that grew the trees the party had spotted, and who had also provided two druids who, after having their legs amputated, were forced to cast plant growth on the trees so that they could be harvested quickly. The wood from the trees, the shaman told them, when treated with chemicals that the hobgoblins provided, gained the power of levitation; a single board worked free of the straps that held it to the sledge it was on for transport obligingly flew straight up into the air and quickly disappeared!

The party then decided to escort the druids back to their circle, and left the shaman and his people to gather as many tribes as they could to take revenge against the hobgoblins. They would return in a week to lead the assault, and made plans to rendezvous with them on their return.

Using the sledge that the lizard folk transported the planks on, the group made the journey to the druid’s circle with Omi and the two former captives. The druids thanked the party for returning their fellows to them, and though they had no knowledge of the type of wood they brought with them, agreed to guard it for them until their return. Another plank was released, to the amazement of all. Omi was sent with the party to be of whatever assistance she could be.

Returning to rendezvous with the lizard folk nearly a week later, they discovered that nearly 300 warriors had been assembled to aid them. They planned to have the lizard folk mount a ground assault, while they would ride hippogriffs summoned by Kitiana to the roof of the tower, and fight their way inside. The blossoming of a fireball on the roof would serve as the lizard folk’s signal to begin their charge (and yes, they were fairly well aware that this would result in a bloodbath… for the lizard folk).

The plan went to spec right up to the point where the hippogriffs tried landing on the center of the tower’s roof, and discovered it was an illusion.Pulling up, Alianna webbed the area to keep anything from emerging (like hails of arrows, or reinforcements). A quick melee finished off the forces on the rooftop, and the party prepared to descend into the tower itself…

Before retiring for the night, the group asked for and received a letter from the priests who had healed/regenerated Akono detailing the extent of his injuries, then sought out a different city magistrate than Lord Warfage.

The closest magistrate was Lady Kantele Vos, who took their statements and placed Akono back into custody. Lady Vos sent an inspector back with Losien to the warehouse, but the underground tunnel had been filled in and the secret door removed. While the investigator could find traces of magic in the area, nothing conclusive was proven.

The next morning the group returned to Lady Vos’ offices, and learned that she had spoken to Lord Warfage the night before, and he claimed that the signature on the document they recovered was a forgery, as was that of the Lord Mayor. Akono’s trial was to be held later that day; the eventual verdict was guilty, but a payment of 5000 gp bought him out of his sentence and gave him back his freedom.

At an immediate loss for plans, (and since Kitiana’s player was sick), the group decided to take on a freelance mission to investigate rumors of a tower in the Mistmarsh that had recently been claimed by an unknown group and was in the process of being restored.

After several days of riding south, and a few days of travel within the swamp, the party learned that horses were more of a hindrance than a help, so they trudged back out to a village they’d passed on the way in, boarded the horses, and purchased the services of both a boat and a guide.

Another few days of travel brought them to the vicinity of the tower, where there guide told them he would wait for a day before returning to the village. The group them made their way through the swamp to the outskirts of a vast cleared area surrounding the 5 story tower.

Using their spyglasses, they determined that the tower’s inhabitants were hobgoblins to two clearly defined varieties, the most numerous of which looked like normal hobgoblins. The smaller group, however, had skins that were decidedly scarlet in coloration, with blood red pelts of hair on their bodies. All were clad in heavy armor, with covered shields.

After some debate, the group elected to watch the hobgoblins to see what they were about. Several patrols were spotted, and their convoluted path from the edge of the clearing to the raised drawbridge studied closely. An ambush was planned for the group of hobgoblins they believed should be in their own area, but the expected scouts never appeared. Eventually a cold camp was made, and the party waited for dawn.

The next morning, as they prepared to assault the tower in a frontal raid, they witnesses a catapult being moved into position, presumably to fire on them were they camped. Losien tapped one of his scrolls for a high level fireball, and set the top of the tower ablaze; a fire which seemed not to bother the red furred hobgoblins not at all.

Losien then attempted to lead a charge across the rutted, fetid swamp, only to draw an amazing volume of missile fire from the tower, most of which seemed to be poisoned. Rethinking their position, the group fell back a quarter mile to discuss their options.

Elzedar continued to argue for ambushing one of the patrols, even though it became clear to them that the patrol they’d expected the night before had found them and avoided them handily enough. As the morning progressed, a thick, patchy fog settled over the swamp, limiting the visibility on both sides. Finally, a patrol did stumble on their position, and when the hobgoblins sensibly attempted to retreat, they were psionically blasted, webbed, and fireballed.

The two hobgoblins not caught in the web slit the throat of their companion who was, but eventually succumbed to the fireball and some arrow fire. As we parted for the evening, the group was recovering the one hobgoblin who was merely unconscious, and listening to the horns in the distance, and wondering at their significance…

When we last left our intrepid band of adventurers, Alex and Kitiana had returned to the Gryphon to divide up the spoils of the two parties that had been fighting over them in the street. Losien and Alianna returned at about that time, and their various stories were shared. Having had a poor record of trying to sleep at the Crippled Gryphon, the party decamped for the more expensive Green Dragon Inn.

Not expecting word from the Magistrate until tomorrow, Losien decided to visit the gaol and attempt to see Okono, and at least supposedly, see how tough it would be to break him out if necessary. After a short visit, Losien passed two burly retainers who also asked about Okono as he was leaving. Hiding himself in the crowd outside, Losien witnessed these two men take a hooded man into a very heavily constructed carriage and drive off. Any insignia the carriage might have carried had been recently removed, he noticed.

Losien trailed the carriage to an abandoned warehouse, where the carriage was brought inside and the doors locked. He paid a local urchin to bring a message back to his friends. When they arrived, Losien and Elzedar entered the building under the cover of invisibility, while Tal4en, Kitiana, and Alianna went back to the gaol to see if they could meet with the warden.

Losien and Elzedar searched the warehouse for a bit, finally uncovering the secret door that led to the chambers beneath the warehouse. Okono’s screams could clearly be heard from a room at the end of the hallway, and careful listening revealed that he was being tortured for information; “when are they leaving?” and “what is their destination?” being chief among the questions being asked over and over.

Losien and Elzedar couldn’t imagine why anyone would take such interest in THEIR movements, especially as they hadn’t made any plans as yet anyway. A quick peek through the door revealed one of the burly retainers smoking a cigar in one corner, while a bald, disfigured halfling tortured Okono on a low stone pedestal. Not daring more of a look, the pair closed the door anew and returned to the surface to await the return of their companions.

The group that had returned to the gaol was told first that visiting hours were over, and second that the warden had gone home for the night. Their momentum stalled, they returned to the warehouse, where their invisible comrades filled them in on the situation downstairs. Deciding that surprise was a marvelous equalizer, they burst in on the scene, quickly slaying both of the retainers and the halfling. The only occupant of the room who survived to actually return a blow was a cleric in a closed helm that resembled a human face; but he could not withstand against so many for any length of time.

After freeing Okono and gathering up the various bits of him that had been nipped off in the course of his interrogation, they gathered up the paltry take in items their opponents had held and began to question the priest, who several of the party recognized as belonging to the Cult of Mabelrode. It was soon deduced, with Okono’s input, that it was Janus Tandover’s movements they were interested in, not the party’s, and that the priest’s presence there meant that they were likely trying to find out how much the party knew… unfortunately, Okono hadn’t paid much if any attention to the details that the group DID know…

The group also found a document on one of the retainers, signed by both Magistrate Warfage and Gaarus Filink, Lord Mayor of Greyhawk, granting the two retainers permission to remove Okono for 24 hours for the purposes of ‘questioning’ him. It struck everyone as a bit odd that they’d need to bring him to such an obviously secret location merely to torture him, so there was obviously more to the situation than was readily apparent.

The group decided to liberate the carriage and horses to carry Okono to the Temple of Boccob. Losien went off to sell the items that they’d taken in their raid, with Elzedar attempting (unsuccessfully) to tail him. Okono’s regeneration and healing was paid for with the proceeds, and as we parted for the evening, Kitiana was busy negotiating with Father Adolphus for training as a Channeler…

At last, the moons are rising and Night is taking hold over the 19th of Wealsun, 599 CY.
XP: 1500

As Alexander stood in the doorway and struck at the nearest bravo, Losien’s half-dressed form tumbled into the room to strike at the other, and eventually followed him back through the glittering portal to it’s terminus, where he was instantly attacked by a pair of warlocks and more bravos. As the rest of the party crowded the door attempting to assist in freeing Kitiana, Losien was forced to retreat in time for Alianna to hurl a web into the far side of the portal at nearly the same time that Alexander finished off his one foe.

After recovering their equilibrium and being healed, Losien used a scroll to dimension door back to where he’d fought the warlocks, only to find the smoldering remains of Alianna’s web and an angry shopkeeper who seemed certain that Losien himself had been among those who’d come charging down his stairs a minute before, disturbing his patrons.

Having few leads to go on, Losien and Alianna elected to go off to the Mage Guild, both to join and to seek another scroll to aid in tracking down their assailants. Alexander had Kitiana lay down in his room, where he agreed to watch over her as she slept.

Meanwhile, downstairs in the Gryphon, Tal4en witnessed a pair of dark haired men in fancy red cloaks approach the innkeeper, ask a few questions, and then venture up the stairs. The two men went directly to Alexander’s room and began banging on his door, demanding to speak with him concerning an overdue loan.

When Kitiana spotted three more of these men watching their window from the street, Alexander finally surrendered to the inevitable and opened the door to these men, who produced an agreement with his signature that appeared to be genuine, though Alex had no memory of ever signing such a document. The men, who claimed to work for a moneylender named Venne, agreed to accompany Alex and Kitiana back to their boss, so that Alex could find out what this was all about, or at least work out a payment plan. Tal4en, who had wandered upstairs to ee what was happening, agreed to go out and seek the mages, and bring them up to speed on this latest development.

As Alex, Kitiana, and their escorts neared Venne’s offices, the streets became disturbingly deserted, and their escorts were just about to change course when the warlocks that Losien had fought earlier showed themselves, along with the the bravo who escaped through the portal and what appeared to be Losien himself. Alex and Kitiana tried to make a break for it, leaving their escorts to choose whether to stop them or fight this new threat, and their escorts tried to do both.

As the battle progressed, Venne’s enforcers fell to a combination of Alex’s rapier and eldritch blasts from the sorcerers. ‘Losien’ threw a poisoned dagger at Kitiana before falling to one of the escorts, and revealing himself as a doppelganger. Finally the last of Venne’s enforcers dropped, leaving a critically wounded Alex and a poisoned Kitiana facing the final two warlocks alone.

Kitiana summoned a celestial hippogriff and sent it to attack the nearest warlock, which it quickly killed. The final warlock decided to flee, leaving our pair of adventurers surrounded by bodies in a bad part of town… so they looted the bodies and flew back to the Gryphon on the hippogriff.

As we broke for the evening, the debate raged over whether they should simply break Okono out of jail and flee the city, or try and figure out who and how many different groups they seemed to have against them…

After a tense battle with eight of the Black Rook Irregulars, the party managed to charm their sergeant and send another two fleeing into the hills. Losien interrogated the man, learning that the mercenary camp of approximately 750 (50 spellcasters) was awaiting the arrival of another force of 200 or so men, after which they’d be setting out north across the Nyr Dyv for the Bandit Kingdoms. Janus Tandover and his forces appeared to be in the pay of one of the Hierarchs of the fallen Horned Society, who with aid from the Priests of Mabelrode, were making a bid to retake their nation from the Empire of Iuz.

Somehow their prisoner managed to shake off his enchantment and flee into the night, only to be slain by Losien in his attempt. Deciding that Janus was too well protected amidst his army, the group reluctantly decided to return to Greyhawk.

Once back in the city, they returned to their rooms at the Crippled Gryphon. Alianna caught Losien going through her pack, and he revealed to her that he was placing a golden ring he had crafted there for her to find. The two elves spent the rest of the evening sipping fey wine together and growing closer.

As Alexander’s remorse at having to allow Janus to live fueled a good drunk, Okono’s attempt to get him to lay off the sauce prompted an altercation with a nearby patron that quickly escalated into the death of said patron. Okono fled the scene of the murder, but was quickly captured by the City Guard and jailed.

The next morning, Alexander and Kitiana went to the boy’s father, one Kulkir Warfage, a local magistrate and wealthy shipping magnate. Offering first to pay to have the boy raised (he’d already been) and then to share information about Tandover’s operation to the southeast, Kitiana detected that Lord Warfage already knew Tandover’s name, but was pretending not to. Ultimately, nothing was decided regarding Okono’s fate, though the magistrate did agree to think about the matter.

On their way back to the Gryphon, Kitiana noticed someone following her and Alexander. Once back int heir quarters, Kitiana went into her room to lay down, while Alexander stood watch in the hall. Soon after, a strange noise from inside her room caused Alex to kick in the door, revealing to leather garbed bravos in the act of lifting Kitiana’s unconscious form, a glittering dimension door at their backs…

While on leave in Gradsul, Trogdor left the group abruptly, announcing that he was seeking his own lands on foot, no longer caring much for sea travel. Okono, the touv they’d rescued from Neutella’s island, decided to throw in his lot with that of the party, come what might.

Kitiana, while meditating, received a vision from Mystra, in which she viewed a stone archway beyond which a dead city could be seen. A bard named Rodolfo told her that she was the most ravishing beauty he’d ever seen, and that the arch in her dreams might well be called the celestial Arch, a Holy site to Celestian. His friend Nethin, a dwarf from the Flinty Hills, might know more, having been among those who first rediscovered it some years ago.

Given Kitiana’s divinely inspired information, the party in general began to think less of aiding Captain Morgan in her quest, and more upon their own futures and fortunes. Plans were made to leave Gradsul for the Flinty Hill’s.

An elf named Losien, sporting a Harper pin, approached the group at an inn one night, and introduced himself to Kitiana, stating that he’d been sent to watch over and assist her. Though suspicious at first, both she and the group eventually decided to allow him to join the party.

When the group elected to set out north for the Flinty Hills by way of Greyhawk, Alexander began making inquiries about Janus Tandor, the man who had slain his fiancee so many years ago. Hearing that he’d been gathering mercenaries in and about the region, Alexander resumed his inquiries once they reached the city itself, learning that he and his forces were camped out in the Cairn Hills.

Riding into the Cairn Hills, the group soon encountered a force of mercenaries displaying the Tandover crest, that being a Black Raven (or Rook) upon a field of brown. When we broke for the evening, the party and the mercenaries were in the midst of a battle, which either side could still emerge victorious from…

We left our band of rogues interrogating a strange, gray creature they found bound in the workshop of the mansion. Trogdor recognized the creature as belonging to the race that ruled over his own people, and argued against including it in the party to no avail.

The search for the Frog led them back into the main gallery, where the mistress of the house set more of her troll-like guards and unnatural hounds. When the group seemed likely to defeat all of these guards, Neutella herself returned to the balcony, fireballed the group, and nearly charmed Trogdor into finishing his companions, but he threw off her spell and slew her instead… almost. She dissolved into mist and drifted away, revealing herself to be a vampire.

A search of the house revealed the Ruby Frog, several dozen gaudy trinkets, a pair of wands, and a nearly blood-drained warrior of Touv descent. Selinidar was located as well; pale, nearly drained of blood himself, trapped behind a wall of force that sealed off the mistress’ personal quarters.

The party returned to their ship, leaving Selinidar to his fate, escaping before Neutella could regroup her forces, taking the unknown Touv along with them. Two weeks later, the Silver Gull made port in Gradsul once more, with the Captain quickly leaving the ship to make a rendezvous with her unknown buyer…